Former director of Museum of Science in Boston named president of Roger Williams University

Linda Borg Journal Staff Writer @lborgprojocom

Wednesday

Feb 13, 2019 at 10:55 AMFeb 13, 2019 at 9:10 PM

BRISTOL — Ioannis Miaoulis got his first glimpse of Roger Williams University while fishing for bluefish and scup in Narragansett Bay. While fishing, he would admire the university's lush, waterfront campus, which rolls down to the shore.

So, he was thrilled when the university announced Wednesday that he was its new president. The former director of the Museum of Science in Boston will take the position in August. The previous president, Donald J. Farish, died in July 2018.

"I always knew Roger Williams as an up-and-coming university," Miaoulis said by phone Wednesday. "Its mission is 'to become what the world needs now.' That attracted my attention. Roger Williams has all of the ingredients to become that university."

Miaoulis, 57, said the university has a strong liberal arts program, a law school and a college in Providence that serves nontraditional students.

The university, he said, has the potential to be a national leader for what higher education can and should be.

At the Museum of Science, Miaoulis spearheaded the creation of the National Center for Technological Literacy, which developed K-12 engineering materials that have reached an estimated 200,000 teachers and 18 million students in 50 states and many countries, according to the university. He also helped the museum raise more than $470 million, including a record $50-million gift from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Miaoulis left the museum at the end of January.

At age 32, Miaoulis became the youngest dean of what was then the College of Engineering at Tufts University. Working with the faculty, he led the effort to make it a separate school of engineering. During his tenure as dean, the number of engineering student applications doubled and the number of female undergraduates increased by 30 percent.

Additionally, he significantly increased faculty and student diversity, boosting the proportion of female faculty members from 1 percent to 25 percent. He also launched the first internship program at Tufts, reflecting his passion for experiential learning, according to Roger Williams.

"My strengths are listening to all the people," he said. "I try to make the environment very inclusive for people from all backgrounds. And I'm pretty good at lending my passion in attracting funding to make plans a reality."

Born in Athens, Greece, Miaoulis graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 1980. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 and a master’s degree in economics from Tufts in 1986. He received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Tufts in 1987.

Miaoulis began working as a lecturer at Tufts in 1984 and served as a tenured professor of mechanical engineering from 1997 to 2002.

He was dean of the TuftsSchool of Engineering from 1994 to 2002, interim dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2001 and associate provost from 2001 to 2002.

He had served as president and director of the Museum of Science in Boston since 2003.